The legal needs of the middle class and those with moderate incomes goes unmet many times due to the cost of legal services. Annually, the Louis M. Brown Award for Legal Access is presented to those who have made creative contributions to the delivery of legal services to the middle class and those of moderate incomes.

Be inspired. Check out the award’s website for ideas that can be replicated for providing legal information, services, and representation. If you are doing something innovative nominate yourself. If you like what someone else is doing, nominate them. Hoping for an Oregon winner! Details here.

My appreciation to Will Hornsby of the ABA for bringing this December 17th deadline for nominations for this award to my attention.

A brief summary of the James I. Keane Award criteria:
• The project or law firm must demonstrate the use of the Internet to deliver legal services.
• It must be unique. It should be an on-line legal service that has never been done before, or not quite this way before.
• Absence of precedent – Never been done or done quite this way before.
• There should be some measurable outcome that would indicate that the innovation is accomplishing what it was intended to do.
• Action must have taken place no more than three years prior to this entry, and the legal service must be operating for at least one year prior to submission of the Application.
• Additional consideration will be given to projects that focus on the delivery of legal services to individuals of moderate means.
• The nomination should describe how the service was developed, how it is managed, and how it has been evaluated.
• The nomination should describe how the service can be replicated by other law firms in terms of development costs, required technology, people requirements, and ongoing maintenance costs.